Cold to the Touch

“One of the best volumes of weird fiction to surface in recent years, and essential reading for all…”
— Black Static

“Outcasts and disaffected loners find their alienated states of mind mirrored in eerie and inexplicable experiences in this noteworthy collection of thirteen weird tales . . . Readers who prefer subtlety to shocks and suggestion over explicitness in horror fiction will find much to enjoy.”— Publishers Weekly

“In his stories, Simon Strantzas skilfully marries ordinary social anxieties with the inexplicable weirdness that may lie in the darkness beyond. The “strange story” may be one of the most difficult to define — and write well — in the whole horror/dark fantasy field, but with Cold to the Touch Simon Strantzas displays a gift for evoking disturbing atmospheres and creating odd, frightening encounters with the uncanny that puts him right into the arena with Robert Aickman, Joel Lane, and Ramsey Campbell. An impressive collection…”— Lisa Tuttle

“Simon Strantzas is an important new writer of weird fiction, a position solidified by the release of his new collection, Cold to the Touch, from Tartarus Press. What I admire most about this collection, besides the fine writing, is how these stories defy a simply summarization. This fiction goes far beyond the simple scares of most horror. A mystery defying the usual explication of plot lies at the heart of each one, giving us much to chew on long after the story has ended. Cold to the Touch is a great reading experience.”— Steve Rasnic Tem

“Here you have a collection of thirteen tales of unease and the inexplicable. . . They are akin to other collections of what we call horror or the supernatural but no ghosts or monsters, in the normal sense, slither or lope through Strantzas’ stories, and the orthodox trappings of Gothic fiction are almost totally absent from his pages. Set as they are, solidly in a recognizable world of every day reality, they at some point slide or take a leap into the fantastical and the downright odd.”— Terry Lamsley

Dark Regions Press, 2012 (out of print) — Foreword by Reggie Oliver; Under the Overpass; The Other Village; The Uninvited Guest; A Seed on Barren Ground; Writing on the Wall; A Chorus of Yesterdays; The Sweetest Song; Pinholes in Black Muslin; Fading Light; Poor Stephanie; Like Falling Snow; Here’s to the Good Life; Cold to the Touch; Afterword (new)

Tartarus Press, 2009 (out of print) — Under the Overpass; The Other Village; The Uninvited Guest; A Seed on Barren Ground; Writing on the Wall; A Chorus of Yesterdays; The Sweetest Song; Pinholes in Black Muslin; Fading Light; Poor Stephanie; Like Falling Snow; Here’s to the Good Life; Cold to the Touch; Afterword